I know that when it comes to your “children” it is in poor form to play favorites. However, when it comes to my fur-children, I most certainly have a favorite.
And, honestly? It isn’t even close.
Gracie has been my #1 homegirl ever since we brought her home as a puppy. I suppose that is why, when I woke up on Sunday morning and noticed that half of her face was swollen and painful to the touch I had a major freak out moment.
After spending a few minutes discussing our options, Danny and I decided to take her to the Emergency Vet (the regular vet is closed on Sundays). Honestly, we figured that something bit her and she was having an allergic reaction. I figured that we would get instructions to give her some Benadryl and be on our way home in no time.
Perhaps that was being naïve. When the on call vet suggested that they were going to need to sedate her in order to take a look at her mouth, I lost my collective shit. Rationally, I guess that I knew that sedating her was the best way to figure out what was wrong – but, sedation isn’t without risks, and, I wasn’t in a place emotionally where I was ready to think about those risks.
Poor Danny didn’t really know how to handle me in the waiting room. He kept asking me, “Do you want a magazine?” I would respond by bawling, “NO! I just want my dog back in one living, breathing piece!” What can I say? When I overreact, I go big.
The prognosis was that she had a cracked tooth (the big one with 3 different roots in the back of the mouth) that had gotten infected, thus, creating an abscess. We left with medicine to take care of the infection and plans to follow up with our regular vet today.
“Maybe if I am really quiet and don’t move – my mama will forget that we have another vet appointment today.”
After seeing our regular vet today, I feel MUCH more at peace. I cut Gracie a deal, if she let him look at her mouth/teeth without needing sedation, I would stop and get her a puppy cone on the way home.
No sedation was needed and the doctor isn’t 100% convinced that she actually needs the surgery to have the tooth removed. It wasn’t as sore to the touch today, the swelling has gone down a bit and he couldn’t see any valid evidence that it was infected. We left with plans to return next Monday – we tentatively planned the extraction, but, he is going to evaluate her again before we decide. If she does need the surgery, I am confident that our vet will do a good job and Gracie is in good hands.
Puppy cone time definitely happened on the way home this afternoon! I also bought some for myself tonight. It is a proven fact (in our house at least) that ice cream makes everything better.
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